The headline equity benchmarks traded with modest gains in the mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above 22,500 level after hitting the day’s low of 22,303.80 in morning trade. IT shares advanced for the second consecutive trading session. Trading was volatile due to the expiry of weekly index options on the NSE.

At 14:27 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 448.79 points or 0.60% to 74,330.74. The Nifty 50 index added 109.30 points or 0.49% to 22,544.65.

The Sensex and Nifty clocked an all-time high of 74,501.73 and 22,619, respectively in early trade.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.05% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.54%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,377 shares rose and 1,432 shares fell. A total of 107 shares were unchanged.

The RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kicked off its 3-day meeting deliberating interest rates and analysing the state of the economy on April 3 and will end on April 5. While the RBI is widely expected to keep rates on hold, any signals on inflation and economic growth will be closely watched, as per reports.

Economy:

The HSBC India Services Purchasing Managers' Index , compiled by S&P Global, rose to 61.2 last month from February's 60.6, pointed to one of the strongest growth rates seen in over 13-and-a-half years. The upturn was largely attributed to healthy demand conditions, efficiency gains and positive sales developments.

Ines Lam, Economist at HSBC, said, “India’s services PMI rose in March, following a small dip in February, on the back of strong demand that spurred sales and business activity. Service providers increased hiring at the fastest pace since August 2023 in order to expand production capacity. Input costs rose at a faster rate, yet service providers were able to broadly maintain margins by charging higher output prices.”

The HSBC India Composite PMI Output Index increased to 61.8 in March from 60.6 in February, highlighting the second-strongest upturn in over 13-and-ahalf years (behind July 2023).

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index rose 1.16% to 35,454.20. The index gained 1.89% in two trading sessions.

Coforge (up 3.1%), Persistent Systems (up 1.9%), Tech Mahindra (up 1.56%), Tata Consultancy Services (up 1.54%), L&T Technology Services (up 1.5%), Mphasis (up 1.2%), LTIMindtree (up 0.8%), HCL Technologies (up 0.7%), Wipro (up 0.67%) and Infosys (up 0.56%) advanced.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper was down 0.15% to 7.073 as compared with previous close 7.097.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 83.4500, compared with its close of 83.5300 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 5 April 2024 settlement rose 0.03% to Rs 69,801.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was down 0.15% to 104.10.

The United States 10-year bond yield rose 0.12% to 4.359.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for June 2024 settlement lost 15 cents or 0.17% to $89.20 a barrel.

Stocks in spotlight:

HDFC Bank advanced 2.66% after the Private lender's gross advances jumped 55.4% to Rs 25,08,000 crore as of 31 March 2024 as compared with Rs 16,14,200 crore as of 31 March 2023.

Suryoday Small Finance Bank zoomed 8.55% after the bank reported 50% jump in total deposits to Rs 7,775 crore as on 31 March 2024 as against Rs 5,167 crore as on 31 March 2023.

Vodafone Idea shed 1.18%. The telco informed that its board is scheduled to meet on 6 April 2024 to consider proposal for issuance of equity shares and/or convertible securities on a preferential basis upto Rs 2,075 crore.